I'm not going to say whether it's a good thing or not that SWTOR is going free to play, but I would like to comment on what I think the real problem is and why it's a problem.

The fact stands that people who have played SWTOR and left are, in general, unhappy with the SWTOR game experience. This, i believe, is because there are still too many issues with the game. Two frustrations i had when i came back were the subscribing using PayPal not working, and the map not displaying what it's suppose to all the time. Now, I'm not going to make this a bug report, but I think the real problem is that these issues are creating a poor gaming experience. A poor game experience means that people aren't having fun, and having fun is the whole point of a game right?

With that said, the solution to me is pretty clear, fix the problems in a timely manner and people will have a good experience. If people are having a good time, then they, and all their friends will continue to play. I think we all agree that this game had (and still probably has) huge potential to be an MMO giant. Unfortunately, that isn't going to happen until a quality product is formed.

I understand that there are so many different people out there that you can't please them all. I also understand that fixing a game like this is anything but simple, but you have to do what needs to be done. Quite frankly, i don't think it matters what new content is developed, or whether the game is f2p or not, because without a functionally sound foundation (that is simply enjoyable) people will continue to leave.